Homeschool Myths: Homeschool Parents Are Just Lazy

Lyn Lomasi, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Feb 22, 2008 "Share your voice on Yahoo! websites. Start Here."

As the concept of homeschooling continues to ease back into the mainstream, where it began, more and more questions and myths seem to follow. There is a great deal of controversy and confusion surrounding what exactly homeschool is, where it originated, what motivates people to choose homeschooling, and what may or may not be involved in the daily activities of a home school. In this, and other articles on the myths of homeschool, I plan to explore and help shed some light on some of these myths surrounding homeschool. My findings will come from personal experience and sometimes be combined with research studies or other evidence.

A common myth that seems to follow many parents who decide to homeschool their kids is the concept of laziness. It has been my experience that strangers often perceive parents who homeschool as being too lazy to bring their children to school. I say strangers because in my experience, even when people who are close to homeschooling families have questions, they usually don't center around laziness.

I'm sorry if this offends anyone, but the first time I heard this question, I had to stifle a laugh. Well, at least I tried to anyway. Eventually, it did accidentally come out. How could taking on the responsibility of a teacher, in addition to normal parenting duties, be seen as lazy? Still, I listened to the misinformed woman express her concerns.

In a friendly disagreement with my actions, she was concerned that because I wanted to homeschool my children, that meant I really was just tired of transporting them back and forth from school, as if teaching them was somehow easier than that. I sincerely hope that she doesn't treat the difficult tasks her child's teachers face every day with the same disregard.

Perhaps people who make this assumption do not understand everything that a homeschooling parent has to do in a day, or even think about it. I would never call a parent who brings their child to public or private school lazy because parenting is still hard, either way. However, I can say from experience that adding on the responsibility of teaching is anything but laziness and it's definitely much harder than dropping them off at school.

Think about everything you can that involves teaching for a moment. There are kids to instruct, supplies to ready daily, lessons to be planned, papers to grade, activities to plan, field trips to make, supplies to keep stocked, and the list goes on quite extensively. When thinking about this, compare to it the small task of picking up and dropping off kids from school daily. There is no comparison.

This myth pretty much falls flat from the start to anyone who takes a moment to consider it, but for some reason, it still comes up in discussion often. As with any situation, there are likely exceptions to the rule, where a parent withdraws their child from school for the wrong reasons and doesn't teach them or has good intentions, but doesn't follow through. However, I wouldn't label that homeschooling. I'd instead label it educational neglect, which is a whole separate issue and is not representative of the majority of home schools.

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To read more from this author on home schooling, positive parenting, and other topics, simply click on her name above.

Published by Lyn Lomasi - Featured Contributor in Lifestyle

Lyn's the Community Advocate at Yahoo! Contributor Network. Contact her with community issues & ideas. She's been contributing since 2007 and previously acted as a Community Guide. Read her tips for success... View profile

Homeschool Myths: Homeschool Parents Are Just Lazy

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